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Tag: advanced algebra trig

My regular Advanced Algebra Trig students have been graphing polynomial functions of higher degrees using zeros and end behavior. The graphs have also had “bounces” and “flattening”. Here’s a video demonstrating those types of problems…

My honors Advanced Algebra Trig students are wrapping up the semester by solving radical equations. Here is one of the hardest problems I could find to show you for those!

I only have one more night of tutoring before I’m on Winter Break, yay! I’m going to do my best to stay focused though and help my students make it through this Thursday and Friday of tests!!

My Advanced Algebra Trig students, both honors and regular, are doing synthetic division to find the factors and zeros of polynomials. Teachers definitely vary when they teach this topic to students. Most of my students however are asked to make a list of p/q’s which tells them the possible rational zeros, and then they are allowed to look at the graph on a calculator to find a few zeros that they then use in synthetic division. At least that way they don’t have to sit there and guess and check every p/q until they find one that gives them a zero remainder, but they are still showing the work and not just writing down all of the answers straight from the graph on the calculator! Whew…it’s still a lot to understand and can for sure be confusing. Here are two examples (one of them even has imaginary zeros):

Stay tuned for Geometry tomorrow! Even though it’s my Winter Break, I’m still planning to post to my blog!!

I think my Advanced Algebra Trig students are going to cry if they see anymore factoring, but here it is again! They just finished the whole chapter on quadratics and thought factoring was in the past, but now it’s everywhere…with polynomials of even higher degrees!! Yikes!

Well that’s why I’m here. My regular AND honors students are synced up in the same chapter right now so these videos are only about factoring. This first video would be useful for both levels of Advanced Algebra Trig. It is a little lengthier than normal, but I wanted to explain everything thoroughly because factoring is SO important.

And this second video is geared for honors Advanced Algebra Trig. It contains many special cases and very challenging factoring problems…ones that my honors students will be faced with.

Haha…yesterday sunshine, today snow! That’s Chicago for ya 😉 I’m writing a quick post today because I’m about to go over to my daughter’s school to run their School Store during the lunch hour!

My regular Advanced Algebra Trig students are just starting the chapter on polynomials which means the first section they did was on simplifying exponents. Everyone always has a difficult time with exponents so this video has 5 common types of problems that you’ll come across.

My honors Advanced Algebra Trig students are wrapping up their chapter on logarithm so I’ve shown how to solve the two main types of logarithm equations. You will find that they always either have a log on both sides or a log on only one side. I’ve shown both!

Wednesday is always the busiest day of the week for me! I’m about to scoot over to my daughter’s school to run the School Store during their lunch hour. My husband and I are in charge of it together, and it is really fun to see how happy the kids get over a simple keychain or smelly marker!!

My regular Advanced Algebra Trig students are just wrapping up their VERY long chapter over quadratics. I’ve shown how to solve quadratic inequalities in this video (so this is quadratic equations that also have < or > symbols and zero on one side of the equation). I always get a lot of questions from students on how to solve these. There is more than one way that teachers use to solve them, but I’ve shown the “number line” method.

My honors Advanced Algebra Trig students are in the middle of logarithms right now. I’ve picked a few problems which show how you can use the 3 main properties of logarithms. Always remember when using the properties that you never use the same operation on both sides. What I mean is: one log with multiplication doesn’t become two logs with multiplication (it becomes two logs that are added). That idea seems to help most students!

See you tomorrow for my favorite day of the week!!

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About Me

My name is Michelle Lang and in real life I tutor 30+ students each week in all levels of math! I've always wanted to help even MORE students though!! My blog is going to exactly mirror my real life tutoring sessions.

I will pick the most asked questions and share my best tricks as my students and I make our way through the 2015 school year. Chances are you will be learning the same things as them each week!